Sunday, December 30, 2012

Hopeful yet discontent, yet happy

Though his mind is not for rent to any god or government,
always hopeful yet discontent, he knows changes aren’t permanent, but change
is.— Neil Peart, Tom Sawyer, from Moving Pictures (1981) by Rush

A libertarian, the definition of which I best fall under
among various political orientations, is no more discontent about society than
others who have got things all wrong by embracing the state in any shape or
degree.

Sure, he may not experience whatever victories are
experienced by people who identify themselves with political parties, but there
is a peace in being so consistent in principle and theory against the state.

Not only is a libertarian no more discontent than morons
of other political persuasions, but happiness need not be beyond his grasp. One’s
wishes for humanity, no matter how distant in the future or in reality they may
be — and even in a society without
institutionalized states, there will be some
level of coercion, the conflict of which is necessary for evolution — can go
hand in hand with everyday happinesses that require no upheaval but that of one’s
mind.

Revolution

The more I am aware of the libertarian movement, both
abroad and among people I personally know, the more I see its inadequacies, its
flaws, its outright lamenesses. Yet for every tasteless, arrogant, stuck-up, hard-headed, phony, narcissistic, spineless dork who considers themselves of like mind, there are three or four
genuinely nice people worth knowing and sharing ideas with.

And the more I see, the less like a ‘movement’ it seems.
Worthwhile change happens not with a bang. There is no revamp of people in
charge; heck, the very concept of people having to be in charge is discarded. Political
revolution quietly creeps in like inception.

Any noise that is heard, is in glory of
specific entities, think tanks, foundations, politicians, etc. These are
marketing successes, nothing more. They do not concern me, nor anyone who
insists on being scientific in their views.

They’re morons. So
what?

The gap between sound political thinking, and of today’s
intellectual morass, is huge. There’s this diagram I saw sometime back, showing
a hierarchy of entities, wherein God supersedes Country supersedes Family
supersedes Barkada supersedes the Individual. As though there just had to be conflict between levels, or as
if the individual could benefit himself in any long-term, holistic sense by
hurting others or by defying science and nature (i.e. God, for those wanting to
be figurative about it).

Instead of looking at the individual and society as
complementing one another — wherein the interests of both are promoted sans
coercive acts — conflict is thought to be inherent. No wonder people turn to
the state, i.e. initiated, institutionalized violence, to sort their problems.
If you look at society as a class war instead of, well, a society composed of individuals, life will always be one versus the
other, of which government is the epitome.

Luckily, not many actually embrace the implications of
statism to its end. Unluckily, because they do not take the time to study its
implications at all, most still unwittingly embrace statism and the theft and
murder it entails, even though if questioned, they would say that theft and murder are harmful
and despicable.

2. Keep your head up. Take time to appreciate the liberty
you do have, which is considerable. Even Andy Dufresne, stuck in a dark, stinky
hole in ‘The Shawshank redemption’ (1994), had the music in his heart that no warden
could take away.